February 22, 2016, at 20:06, after the repeated hospitalization for pulmonary disease, Rev. Dr. Ivan Muzychka, assistant of the Patriarch Joseph Slipyj, former rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University died in Rome.
His biography published by Rev Athanasius McVay on his blog:
Mitred-archpriest Doctor Ivan Muzyczka was born 15 November 1921 in the village Pukiv in Stanyslaviv (Ivano-Frankivsk) province, the son of poor farming stock. Having received his early education in his native Pukiv, he entered the Rohatyn High School on a scholarship from the local Cooperative Union, and subsequently continued his studies on scholarships from the wealthy Lviv property owner, Ivan Tyktora.
Perhaps the strongest formative influence on young Ivan was his local parish priest, Vasyl Solovii. In addition to his profound sermons, Muzyczka was also enamoured by the singing of the church choir, which was directed by the pastor. This is where two life callings, to the priesthood and to music, were nurtured in the soul of this young boy.
In 1941 Ivan became an elementary school teacher in the village of Putyatyntsi, and the following year at the elementary school in his native village. In 1943 he graduated from the department of music theory and violin from Rohatyn teacher’s college.
Convinced by the views and authority of Professor Uhryn Bezhrishnyi, in 1943 he joined the “Galicia” Division. After basic training, “volunteer” Muzychka was assigned to the Division’s orchestra but, due to a long illness, he was forced to abandon the orchestra and became a duty nurse and interpreter.
In the last months of the Second World War, most of the Division came under British captivity was interned on the east coast of Italy, near Rimini. In July 1945 several priests were sent from Rome to minister to the internees. Due to the intervention of Bishop Buchko, in the autumn of 1945, the British allowed two dozen of them to study at the Pontifical St. Josaphat College in Rome. Thus Ivan Muzyczka took his first step along the road of his priestly vocation.
Muzyczka obtained a baccalaureate degree from the Pontifical Urban University in Rome (Propaganda Fide) in 1947. He defended his doctoral dissertation, entitled "On [the use of] water in the Byzantine Liturgy" on 27 June 1953. He awarded a doctoral degree in liturgical theology from the Urbaniana following the publication of the dissertation by the Vatican printing press in 1957.
Ordained a priest by Bishop Buchko on 3 May 1951, and unable to return to Ukraine under Soviet rule, Father Ivan was assigned to the Ukrainian Catholic mission in England. There he faithfully served for the next 24 years, principally in the West Midlands. After completing his doctorate, he was assigned to Rochdale in 1953 and Wolverhampton the following year. The latter was to remain his pastoral base for the surrounding area until 1975. A great admirer of the British, especially after having been interned under their "civilised" captivity; a fact for which he was always grateful, Muzyczka went on to become a naturalised British Subject.
Metropolitan Yosyf Slipyi was released from the Soviet Gulag in 1963. From 1970, Muzyczka began to assist Slipyj in his project to establish a Ukrainian Catholic University. Finally, in 1975, Father Ivan gave in to Slipyi’s insistant demands that he move to Rome permanently, to dedicate himself to the project. Thenceforth, Doctor Muzyczka concentrated on lecturing in theology and church history. He was responsible for publishing the Ukrainian Catholic theological-historical journal Bohoslovia, as well as the opera omnia of Cardinal Slipyi, together with Bishop Choma.
Throughout the dark period of Ostpolitik, Muzyczka served as one of Cardinal Slipyi's inner council, as one of his closest advisors. For his faithful service he was named canon of the Lviv Chapter (in exile) and mitred archpriest. Father Ivan was present when Slipyi secretly ordained three bishops on 2 April 1977: Lubomyr Husar, Ivan Choma, and Stefan Czmil. Having refused the accept the episcopate himself, he nevertheless agreed to act as the sole witness and also to cantor at the Divine Liturgy of episcopal chirotonia. Two of the three bishops were later recognised by Saint John Paul II, in 1996: Husar succeeded Slipyi as Major-Archbishop in 2001, Choma became UGCC procurator to the Holy See, and Czmil is famous for having being spiritual advisor and teacher to Jorge Maria Bergoglio (the future Pope Francis) in Argentina. Czmil died in 1978, before the papal recognition could occur.
The church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus had been given to the Kyivan Metropolitan in 1641. After having served as the seat of the metropolitan’s procurator and, from 1897, the Pontifical Ruthenian College, the church and adjacent residence became the General Curia of the Basilian Order. After the Basilians moved to the Aventine Hill, the properties were eventually re-acquired by Cardinal Slipyi, and Sergius and Bacchus was raised to the status of a “personal” parish of the Diocese of Rome. In 1976 Father Ivan was appointed its first parish priest, and served in this capacity until 2001; having succeeded Bishop Ivan Choma as rector of Saint Seminary-Sophia College, that year.
In 2006 Muzychka was also named rector of the church of St. Sophia, where he served hundreds of Ukrainian migrant workers and was also responsible for the Ukrainian Catholic pastoral mission in the city of Naples. Father Ivan made annual visits to Ukraine, following its independence in 1991, where he gave public lectures in various state and church institutions.
On 3 March 2011, after the election of Sviatoslav Shevchuk as Head of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Father Ivan delivered a moving oration to the patriarch. In welcoming him to Saint Sophia, he traced the history of the sobor, built by Shevchuk's predecessor Slipyi in 1969 as a Hagia Sophia for Ukrainians in exile.
In 2013, he received a doctorate honoris causa from the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.
Upon his arrival in Rome in 1975, Father Myzyczka remarked: "So here I am and I won't be leaving." Following years of ardent toil, exhausted physically but not spiritually, he spent his final years at Saint Sophia's. After having been hospitalised several times for a lung illness, Father Muzyczka died in Rome at 8:06 PM, on 22 February 2016, at the age of 94 years.
Having arrived in Rome for their annual Permanent Synod meeting, Patriarch Sviatoslav, together with Metropolitan Volodymyr Viityshyn and Bishop Venedykt Alekseychuk, prayed panakhyda over the mortal remains of Father Ivan. Hearing the news of his death, prayers were offered for his eternal repose across the globe, from Kyiv to Sydney, Australia. Ivan Muzyczka's passing to eternity marks the passing away of an entire epoch in the history of our Church.
Funeral services will be celebrated throughout the day on Wednesday and Thursday, 24–25 February 2016.